A power outage at the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament created a fair amount of chaos Monday around the grounds at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
Tournament organizers posted just before 6 p.m. local time that play had been suspended due to an “on-site power outage.”
Tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg posted on X that smoke appeared to be rising from a generator on the property, with the power outage disabling the tournament’s Hawk-Eye electronic line calling system.
Cincinnati Open organizers told CNN, “The loss of power impacted several systems used by the tournament and caused a delay of approximately one hour before play was able to resume with generator power.”
At 7:25 p.m. Rothenberg posted that play had resumed on Center Court without video or scoreboards in the grandstand, and with ushers using their fingers to relay the score to spectators.
The power outage also briefly disrupted Tennis Channel’s coverage of the tournament.
More than an hour after play had resumed, an apparent fire alarm halted play again as the men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner battled Gabriel Diallo on Center Court. Recent Wimbledon champion Sinner could be seen laughing at the surreal chain of events unfolding at the ATP 1000 level tournament.
On-court microphones picked up the conversation as the chair umpire confirmed that both players were willing to play through the noisy conditions, and the umpire then confirmed that the Hawk-Eye operators were not being forced to evacuate the stadium.
The crowd cheered when it was announced that play would resume and then erupted in spontaneous applause when the fire alarm was finally silenced.
A Tennis Channel announcer joked during the chaos, “This is the most dystopian tennis match we have ever been a part of.”
Sinner would go on to win his match 6-2 7-6 (6) to advance to the round of 16.
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